Clothing - 'Screen Printed' personalisation

Clothing - Screen Printing

Screen printing is ideal for:
Very large designs
High volume production runs
Solid colour designs
T-Shirts
Waterproof outer garments

Screen printing is not so good for:
Complex designs
Half tone designs
Low quantity production runs

Screen printed garments wash and iron well and should not be confused with 'heat transfer' printing which does not look as good or last as long. Many T-Shirt printing shops use this cheaper method rather than screen printing.

There are three stages to this process:

1: Set-Up (sometimes called 'Origination')
Once we are in receipt of your artwork and have an understanding of exactly 'where' you want it printed as well as to what size, special silk screens are produced. Individual screens are required for every colour to be printed, and /or for every size of image to be used. This means if you have a small two colour logo to be printed onto the front of a garment, and the same two colour image, but larger, to go onto the rear of the same garment, then FOUR individual screens will need to be produced. Due to storage/handling restraints, we dispose of all screens after around 9 months.

2: Pre-production sign off
Our production department create a paper 'proof' showing the scale, position, and colours for your images, positioned onto a template garment, which you will need to sign off your approval for before production can commence.

3: Production
Once you have signed off your approval of the 'proof', production can commence.

The Process
Screens are made by putting a chemical emulsion onto a mesh surface. Your artwork is printed onto a film type paper. The screen is then exposed to intense light which solidifies the chemicals around the design, and where the light failed to pass through the chemical breaks down. The screen is then rinsed out and what is left is where the light hit.

The garment is placed onto a platen and each of the required screens swings over the top of the shirt. The screen is brought down and placed onto the shirt. A squeegee is then pulled over that screens ink colour, pushing the ink through the screen and onto the garment.
That screen is then carefully lifted off the garment (if the garment moves or stretches, the next colour to be applied will be out of registration).
The platen with the garment is then moved under a 'flash' unit where it dries. Upon curing, the garment platen is brought back and the next colour screen is swung over the top of it.